billdauterive

Funny you mention that as Harmony is where I just had it for the first time and didn't care for it (team Giovanni's!). Just shows that everything food related is subjective so you really should try things for yourself.

How long was the bus ride from there? Chitzen Itza is still something I need to do but I have ZERO desire to take the ferry from Cozumel.

Actually that would save me a LOT of money if I couldn't actually get to the casino...

You misspelled brig...

Most rental car companies can provide a car seat if requested. It might be an additional cost though.

I stayed at the Hyatt Centric Faneuil Hall recently and I thought the location was perfect even if the rooms were on the small side. It's literally half a block from the old state house (and Boston massacre site) so it's on the middle of the freedom trail. The freedom trail is an extremely easy walk and you can make it as long or short as you want. Also it was only about half a mile to the north end so very easy walk to restaurants. The cruise port was only about a 15-20 min uber through downtown. It's technically walkable from there as it's less than 2 miles, but I definitely wouldn't want to do it with luggage...

This is most likely the case. The menu is identical for each cruise that is the same length. For example a 7 day cruise will have the exact same menu on the same days regardless of the itinerary (at least on North American sailings, I'm not positive about European or Australian). However a 4 day cruise will have a different menu selection than the first 4 days of the 7 day cruises, but all the 4 day cruise menus will be identical regardless of itinerary.

Definitely didn't mess up. Here's a summary of some cheaper options you can do depending on your budget. Drinks on board: Carry on a 12 pack of soda (or one 12 pack each if you're feeling lucky ). Carry on 2 bottles of wine, although I'm not exactly sure how this would work since you're traveling with a minor they may limit you to just 1. And/or you can buy a soda package for 1 or both of you for about $8/day right now. You can buy alcoholic (or virgin) drinks a la carte as needed. If you're only going to have a couple a day, especially on port days, it always makes sense to buy a la carte. There's also plenty of cheaper drink options in and around the ports as well for non-sea days. Excursions: Here's a great list of options for Cozumel and Costa Maya - https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2022/09/26/best-shore-excursion-every-caribbean-cruise-port. Maya Chan at Costa Maya is $69/person and includes everything including taxi rides other than tipping the staff (and I would recommend not skipping the tip because the staff there is absolutely amazing). Cozumel has plenty of beaches to choose from and the taxi prices are reasonable, about $10-$20 each way depending on exactly where. If you want to go cheaper, you can get a $4 taxi each way in Costa May to take you to the "town" of Mahahaul. You can then just walk along the promenade and spend as little or as much money as you want at the places/beaches you come across. Same idea in Cozumel, take a $10 taxi each way into town and walk up and down the streets spending as much or as little as you want to along the way. If you want to go REALLY cheap, you can just walk in the ports for free. I would recommend not buying anything though as you'll find cheaper options outside the port that should more than offset the taxi fare. You could also walk to each town, but they are pretty long walks and I wouldn't recommend it if it's your first time at either place. There's also nothing wrong with just staying on the ship and enjoying the pool or other activities while in port.

Rental cars are usually a better option for a longer trip like that and provide much more time flexibility. I used the Enterprise location in downtown to drive to Kennebunkport. It's about a mile from the port so it's walkable or Uber was about $6 each way. The airport also has several other rental company options and isn't too far from the port. Just like most things, go ahead and create a reservation now and watch for price drops throughout the year. I also like the fact that rental car reservations don't require any deposit up front and you can just no show with no penalty if another option presents itself.

I'd like to hear some ideas of how to kill most of a day in Fort Lauderdale after a cruise. My flight options don't leave until 7pm or later and I really prefer not to just sit in the terminal all day. Bonus points for anything not beach-based so I don't have to worry about changing.

I had it for the first time last week. Personally I thought it was the worst specialty restaurant in the fleet by far. Other than the banana split, I thought the rest of the items I tried were extremely underwhelming or just plain bad. I will definitely be choosing other options (including the MDR) in the future.

I can also confirm I don't recall seeing it as an option on the previous sailing (11/12-11/19).

Definitely some kind of dynamic voting. The percentages are now different. They must be just going off of email clicks. Everywhere I click just takes me to the cruise planner for that item. I don't see any other way to "vote" or "like"

It's not 60% off, it's 60% of fellow cruises this. It looks like its some kind of vote between the 2 options. 60% like the internet option, 40% like the shore excursions option.

Runs through Black Friday, so Cyber Monday could be different (or non-existent).

FYI, here's the rest of the content Clicking the Vote & Explore button just takes you to your closest sailing date cruise planner.

Email that just came through. Looks like tomorrow it is.

Although this one is starting to become my new favorite. I'm pretty sure the ingredients are missing a splash of club soda as the bartenders always topped it off with the gun before shaking. One of them also told me an ingredient was some kind of peach liquor, but peach juice/puree on this recipe would make more sense as I don't see how you'd get the sweetness otherwise.

This is my favorite cocktail! The problem is that no one else must be ordering them except me. Over half the time the bartender has never heard of it or has to ask someone (or me) how to make it. The other times they are usually out of one of a key ingredient, either honey and/or Paulaner Weiss (simple syrup and Leffe are acceptable substitutions in a pinch). But on the rare occasion I get a bartender that has made it before and the bar is fully stocked: heaven.

Little French Key on Roatan. They don't have a limit on the amount of visitors so we couldn't find any chairs anywhere on the island. The bars were at least 3-4 people deep so we couldn't get any drinks or food. The water was the most crowed I've ever seen (even worse than the pool at perfect day). We only stayed about an hour before giving up and just going back to the ship. Granted this was pre-covid so maybe they now have a limit and it's better, but personally I will never go back find out.

@Matt can you share some events that aren't MEI exclusive? I'd like to try to meetup with the group at some point.

Good advise. FYI, prime waives the 5% fee to charge your seapass so I always do this instead of bringing on a bunch of cash (DON'T DO THIS IF YOU CAN'T STICK TO YOUR LIMIT!). I also do it for the reason you mention of making sure the pitboss comes over to see the initial 1st bet, plus getting credit card reward points. I think time is also a much larger aspect of attaining table points than people realize. It doesn't appear to be linear as the rate of points I get seems to grow at a faster rate the longer I'm there, even though my betting pattern never changes. For example, I might get 50 points after an hour of play, 110 points after 2 hours, 250 after 4 hours, and 600 after 8 hours. Purely anecdotal but it seems around 6 hours of constant play at the same table seems to be where the points rate really starts to take off in my experience.

Correct* *at least in all my experiences

I can verify this. Any fully comp'd casino cruises are denied, but "dollar off" casino rates are still eligible just as normal pay ones are.

If you're concerned about Carnival's $32B in debt then you should be just as concerned with Royal's debt which is $21B (but down from $24B 2 quarters ago). Carnival's debt to asset ratio is currently in line with Royal's. Both companies are throwing off enough free cash at the moment to easily service and pay down existing debt. Personally I'm not even close to worried about the viability of either long term.